Wednesday, July 13, 2016

PROCESS MATTERS 02 (the evolution of an idea)

Yes, I am still
writing about the design process. I am
interested not only in the final product, but how as a design studio we arrived
at that solution. And I think the design
process matters – like REALLY matters.
How a design project develops and evolves is critical for design
excellence. It is important to
understand how a design concept evolves, and what is explored and tested along
the way. Often, the first study has a
fragment of something that will eventually become something important to the
design, but in this early beginning it is often only a hint at something. Great design requires a rigorous design
process to move a project from that initial spark into something of value.

This post will
take a closer look at the design process specifically related to the project we
are constructing this summer. Looking
backwards, you can easily trace the thread of the idea all the way
through. The challenge for the designer,
of course, is that the creative process often only makes sense looking
backward.

Or as the
author E.L. Doctorow says about the writing process “Writing is like driving at
night in the fog. You can only see as
far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

The
Architectural design process is like that too.
In real time, it is impossible to see the end of the journey. But looking back at the process reveals the
embedded logic that is often present, The strands of thought that link the
studies together, and it can be an
informative process of self-reflection.
For a designer, an awareness of how we work creatively is crucial for
producing work that is authentic and meaningful.

Here was the
first design sketch.

Not great
right? But the idea was born here. These first models, even in their crude
diagrammatic form, were exploring something important. The exploration is about a roof pattern. A repetitive pattern or geometry, creating a
mosaic of sorts, casting shadow patterns that move across a space. This was the beginning, and an important
start indeed.

One initial
critique was concerned with connecting the roof form with the seating elements
below. This next study, while incomplete, attempted to address
this concern. It also foreshadows a potential solution for the integration of
structure and roof pattern that would be an essential design improvement later
on.

As the project
evolved, the explorations began to focus more directly on the relationship of
bench and seating to roof form. These
studies attempt to tie the project into one single gesture. The relationship between structure and
pattern is also a growing concern at this point in the process, as these
studies attempt to preliminary resolve these issues.

These next
studies begins to focus more on the idea of creating a space defined by
shadows. The big design move here is to
wrap the roof element into the south wall to create a continuous form that
modulates light throughout the day. This
study also gets serious in attempting to resolve the roof structure,
integrating the pattern of boxes into the 2x6 roof grid. Design is always a
sort of give and take and as the structural grid regulated the geometry, some
of the rhythmic quality of the design began to get lost. The solution was to transfer the rhythmic
pattern of the roof from the plan into the section. By varying the heights of
the boxes slightly, the rhythm of the form is retained for the space below, while
the plan geometry simplifies to address the structural concerns of the scheme.

During the
final selection process, some of the class felt that this scheme (above) was too
monolithic. So, during the final critique
I sketched a quick idea to discuss the possibility of a formal shift, splitting
the form into two half to open up the space to the south and west
approach.

This sketch lead into the
final development of the structure.

And eventually
to a final model and renderings.

What this
illustration fails to address is that simultaneously in the studio, other unique
schemes were being pursued in the same manner.
Some of these included roof forms and shadow patterns. As these other ideas evolved, they of course
began to influence this scheme. A good
studio is a fertile ground for ideas, students all influencing each other, allowing
for cross pollination to occur.

What is illustrated, I hope, is the importance of process in creative work. It would have been impossible to start at the end. As a studio, we needed those initial studies, even as fragments of ideas, to eventually get to the more developed and sophisticated final solution.

Sometimes, in a design studio, I think students feel like the initial studies are errors, or something they have done wrong. Students are always quick to want to solve the problem "correctly" the first time. But the creative process doesn't quite work that way. The initial studies are a necessary (and perhaps most important) part of the process, because you cant get to the end without them.